National guidelines say that anyone with suspected cancer should be referred to a specialist and seen within two weeks.
Blood cancer symptoms and signs
Blood cancer symptoms vary depending on the type of blood cancer, whether it’s leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma, MDS, MPN or any other blood cancer.
- Blood cancer symptoms
- Symptoms in different skin tones
- Free blood cancer symptoms guide
- Questions to ask your doctor
- Worried about blood cancer?
- About the suspected cancer pathway
- Common blood cancer symptoms explained
Blood cancer symptoms
Blood cancer symptoms include:
- Weight loss that is unexplained
- Bruising or bleeding that is unexplained
- Lumps or swellings
- Shortness of breath (breathlessness)
- Drenching night sweats
- Infections that are persistent, recurrent or severe
- Fever (38°C or above) that is unexplained
- Rash or itchy skin that is unexplained
- Pain in your bones, joints or abdomen (stomach area)
- Tiredness that doesn’t improve with rest or sleep (fatigue)
- Paleness (pallor)
Blood cancer: what are the common symptoms?
We have more specific information about symptoms for different types of blood cancer. Scroll down for more detailed information about blood cancer symptoms.
Not everyone will have the same symptoms, and some people may have symptoms that are not listed on this page.
Symptoms in different skin tones
Some symptoms of blood cancer can look different on different skin tones.
- Bruises generally start as red patches which change colour and get darker over time. They often feel tender. On black and brown skin, bruises may be difficult to see initially, but as they develop, they show up as darker than the skin around them.
- Rashes often appear as clusters of tiny spots (petechiae) or larger blotches (purpura). On black and brown skin, they may look purple or darker than the surrounding skin. On lighter skin, they typically look red or purple. If you press on them, petechiae and purpura don’t fade.
- Paleness (pallor) might mean someone looks unusually pale because they have too few red blood cells. Pallor is often more immediately noticeable in light skin. People with black or brown skin may look greyish and their palms may look paler than usual. They might also notice pallor in their lips, gums, tongue or nail beds. In all skin tones, pallor can be seen by pulling down the lower eyelid. The inside is normally dark pink or red, but if it’s pale pink or white, it’s a sign of pallor.
You can read more about the causes of these symptoms and others below.
We’d like to thank the ACLT (African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust) for their help reviewing this information. ACLT raises awareness about stem cell, blood and organ donation in all UK communities, with a focus on the African and Caribbean communities.
About the Color Purple
Color conveys meanings or evokes feelings in three chief ways. See the resulting associations with purple for each trigger.
1. PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE: Purple stimulates the areas of the brain that do problem solving.
2. IN NATURE (associations to occurrences of colors in nature): Find purple in nature in blossoms. But, really, purple doesn’t occur as much as other colors in nature and can, thus, seem artificial if used too much.
3. PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMBOLISM (associations with the viewer’s own psychological symbolism):*
- Western: royalty, military honor, high ranking positions of authority
- Eastern: wealth
- India: sorrow and comforting
- Japan: privilege and wealth
- Thailand: color of mourning for widows
- Brazil: death and mourning
Purple Dominating
Amy Kingsford used purple to set the mood on “Magical Ending.” She says, “I chose a dark purple background, which I’ll admit was a little scary for me at first, but it created the perfect ‘night-time feel’ once paired with some of the themed embellishments. I’ve paired my purple with a few splashes of pale yellow–purple’s complement on the color wheel, which I’ve used to add highlights to this otherwise dark page.”
Magical Ending by Amy Kingsford | Supplies: Template from Simple Scrapper’s Premium Collection (May 2011, Single 3)After Dark, After Dark Word Art, Dream Word Art, Rejuvenate by Sahlin Studio.
Michelle Houghton used a split comlimentary color sceme on “Family” with purple providing a bold backdrop for her photo.
Michelle says, “My family tries to gather all together every two years, and my brother designs t-shirts for us all to wear on our big outing. This past summer our t-shirts were dark green and our photo was taken in front of green foliage. Purple goes wonderfully with green and really makes it pop so I decided to use a large block of purple behind my photograph. I layed a layer of green behind the purple to create a boarder and then added texture to the top of the purple with green mesh and spray mist. Leather and jewels add small touches of orange to the layout to complete a split comlimentary color sceme. The small touches of orange help draw the eye around the layout.
Family by Michelle Houghton | Supplies: Cardstock – Bazzill, Mesh – Magic Mesh, Leather – Mountain Craft Supply, Gems – Prima, Letters – Paperbilities, Spray mist – Mister Huey’s
Terry Billman‘s granddaughter was a flower girl in a recent wedding. Terry says, “She looked so precious I wanted something simple to not take away from the beauty of the photo. In order to keep it simple, I chose a monochromatic theme based on purple, the color of her sash. The photo pops against the light shade of purple and the dark purple mat sets off the inner canvas well.”
Love by Terry Billman | Supplies: Katie Pertiet: Watery Wings, Chalked rubbings No. 1, Bead Scatterings, Letterbox Overlay 5; Maplebrook Studios: Jacinda Solids; Anna Aspnes: Art Play Solids Adventure, Masking Gradient Canvas, Fotoblendz Clipping Mask No. 8, Art Play Palette Crazy Life Frame, Art Play Palette Authentic, Stitched by Anna Border No. 1, Hipster Plume Korner Edges No. 3; Patti Knox: Pearl Accents.
Purple Drawing the Eye
The photos of purple yarn in Sue Althouse‘s “Summer Project” immediately draw the viewer’s eye because of their contrast with the rest of the page. A darker and more subdued purple title draws the eye next.
Sue says, “My recent purchase of 13 balls of purple yarn for a big knitting project was the perfect subject for this layout. I chose an analogous color scheme of red-purple, purple, blue-purple, blue and blue-green. The calming colors remind me how relaxing an evening of knitting can be. I need that, because I have a whole summer of knitting ahead to complete my cardigan!”
Summer Project by Sue Althouse | Supplies: Patterned Paper and Stickers: Basic Grey; Alphabets: American Crafts; Stamps: American Crafts Date Stamp; Inks, Mists: Tim Holtz, Mr. Huey’s, Hero Arts; Tools: Fiskars Border Punch, EK Success Punches; Other: purple brads, washi tape.
Tara McKernin says, “This page includes purple in a complimentary color scheme. I took my photos and played the purple off of them and used yellow accents to highlight the layout making it pop. You can use a color wheel to pick your complementary colour if you are unsure of what would work best.”
Springtime Flowers by Tara McKernin | Supplies: Photo frames from Paislee Press Presspacket no.3, White Linen Cardstock from Michelle Martin Lars Solids, Barely There Brushes set 1 & 2 from Tiffany Tillman, Staples from Jenn Barrette I love you more than ice cream kit, Purple Paper from One Little Bird Page Turner Kit, Photo elements and long banner from Paislee Press Montage
The splotches of purple behind the focal point photo on Kiki Kougioumtzi‘s “She is an Artist” draw the eye and emphasize the most important part of the page.
Kiki says, “I pulled the color scheme from the photos and used color scheme designer to come up with it. This is a tetradic scheme with the purple as the dominant color. I chose this as the dominant because all the other colors of the scheme exist in the photos in big amounts. The muted purple represents all the mess that was made during my daughter’s drawing.”
She’s an Artist by Kiki Kougiomtzi | Supplies: Cardstock: Canson;Mist: Tattered Angels;Paint:Ranger Adirondack Dabber; Brads:7Gypsies,Basic Grey; Rub-ons: Fancy Pants, American Crafts; Alphas: Basic Grey, Echo Park; Stamp: Kaisercraft; Ink and Glitter glue: Ranger.
